“On Honda’s early 750 cc motorcycle engines, the crankshaft on the right side of the engine, cylinders three and four, rotates in the “standard” direction, but the crankshaft on the left side of the engine, cylinders one and two rotates in the “reverse” direction.
Can anybody explain why?”
???
Because you’re looking at them from the opposite side? Only one crankshaft on the Honda 750.
Yes, the power takeoff was from the center of the crank.
The filter is inconveniently located. To get an arm in I can’t see, so I have to move it around for a few seconds before I get it mounted. Could I fill the filter then put it in the freezer? dry ice? Is there a wax I could plug it with that wouldn’t foul the oil?
Stop living up to your screen name . Just run the engine for a few minutes and add oil if necessary and be done with it.
Dry ice would stiffen the oil but it also might crack glues and the rubber seals of the filter, as you wait for the filter to warm up more oil will seep out of the bearings which is what you’re trying to prevent in the first place. You’d also need bulky gloves. (This was a fun mental exercise, though).
While one is right to be thinking about ways to improve things, I feel this is a non-problem. Critical surfaces like journal bearings and piston walls retain sufficient oil beyond the time period of an oil change, likely more oil than on a cold start and cars last for many thousands of those. Modern engines with modern oils rarely suffer from wear problems when maintained as recommended, and this with conventional oils (when allowed), and without pre-filling filters - cars usually are retired for other reasons. If you want to do the best for your car change oil more frequently if doing many short drives, do other inspections/maintenance at recommended time/mileage schedules, and if the mfgr. didn’t recommend a schedule for a fluid then inspect/test periodically and/or change at sensible intervals.
There is a certain brand of dishwasher cleaner with a wax plug. The hot water melts the wax and the stuff seeps into the dishwasher. I won’t use it again, but maybe you can buy one at Walmart for $5, melt the wax into your oil filter and see how that works for ya. It’s about time for a new truck anyway. Or you can just put the battery in and take it for a spin down to the malt shop.
If you completely prefill the filter by temporarily defeating the anti-drainback valve, and then remove that toothpick, you can screw that filter into a horizontal filter mount without losing a lot of oil, that’s the anti-drainback valve doing its job. The screw on filter on my motorcycle is horizontal and pre filling is effective.
Oil refiners go to some lengths to remove wax from crude and to prevent what remains from condensing, not sure one should be adding it.
Yeah that would be an understatement.
That’s wasteful. I never run the engine just to run the engine, only to go somewhere.
I thought of that. I keep the coil wire inside in a jar as an anti-theft measure. I forgot to put it in once so did this inadvertently. It’s inelegant.
Stop minding.
This is exactly what I’m trying to avoid. I don’t say it’s important.
Good point.
It is. I didn’t claim otherwise.
Yes, all that wax (except the stuff from the bees and my ears) is stuff the cracking plant removed 'cause they didn’t want it in any other fraction. Maybe there’s a real problem such a substance would solve and they’ve invented it. Perhaps I’d have to buy the 55-gallon barrel.
Yes, why I continued the thread.
Jack another car up, then build a system of pulleys going from a drive wheel of the other car to the crank pulley on yours. You’ll need to weld a new pulley onto the crank pulley bolt, but in the interest of saving fuel nothing is too complicated.
Thread a belt from the new crank pulley to the drive wheel. Then start the other car, put it in drive, and floor it. That’ll spin your engine fast enough to get the oil distributed, and it will keep you occupied for a long time so you don’t get bored. 
Why not just run the engine instead? An idling engine with the throttle nearly closed has a high vacuum in the intake manifold, which means that on the compression stroke, the pistons are compressing a vacuum going most of the way up the cylinder before the pressure in the cylinders is even at atmospheric pressure. This means there is very little load on the bearings of an idling engine. This is also why four stroke gasoline engines idle so smoothly. A gasoline engine could probably idle for an hour without oil pressure without ruining the bearings. The speed is slow and the load is low and the oil film retained by capillary forces would serve to lubricate the bearings.
Diesels never throttle the air so even at idle there is full compression and that’s why diesels shake so much while idling.
Yes, closing the throttle effectively lowers the compression of a gasoline engine, that’s why you can drive a car that needs premium to the next gas station on regular if keep the intake manifold vacuum high by limiting the throttle opening.
There were some WWI airplane engines that were purposely over compressed for the octane of the fuel available, the idea was to achieve maximum engine efficiency at high altitudes and they could only be run at full throttle at high altitudes, at ground level, they had to be run at reduced throttle to prevent detonation.
Is there an emoli or whatever they are called, that shows we are being a little sarcastic? Some folks take some of us (me) seriously.
Supposedly, this one can be used to convey sarcasm
Turning the engine over by hand using the crank pulley bolt carries the risk of damaging the bolt. If the bolt gets damaged, or sheared off, extracting the remainder may damage the crankshaft. You can see where this is going. I wouldn’t try it just for the sake of seeing if I could. Why take on that unnecessary risk? But if you are going to, be extra careful the socket is fully seated on the head of the bolt first, and doesn’t slip off as you exert force.
I like this, but doesn’t seem complicated enough.
Perhaps mount a secondary engine to this vehicle. You can tie into pulley system as Shadowfax suggested, but instead of having to use a second vehicle, just use the second engine. Fabricating a mount that will hold the engine directly above the OEM engine will likely be the easiest solution,so I would recommend doing away with the drivers side front wheel and mounting this secondary engine there.
The beauty of this idea is that it solves both issues- when you change the oil in engine #1- use engine #2 to run the oil through engine #1
BUT WAIT!
when you change the oil in engine #2, you know have a backup engine to get that oil through the engine- ENGINE #1!!!
This really is a perfect idea, and I cannot believe that car manufactures have not thought of this yet…
It’s about time for me to change oil. I’m wondering though to avoid having to get under the car, if I should remove the engine first. Then I could even put it on a rotisserie and flip it over to drain the oil instead of the pan plug. I’ll think on it for a few days.
Just put in the extra pint of oil and forget about it. It won’t hurt anything and it will be there when you start it.
This is a rabbit hole that serves No one, not even the Troll.
I’ll rope-start first. Or I’ll hire Rube Goldberg to outdo you.
Avoiding that is the point of the thread. Every car used to be crankable. I remember Volkswagens that came with cranks.
Good to know. They used to be made strong enough for this purpose. I didn’t know they weren’t anymore.
It won’t overflow? The dipstick is just above F.
I’ve enjoyed the serious responses. I think 99% of the members of this forum have ignored the thread.
